The Domestic Drilling Lie Blown Apart in One Graph

The picture above, via CleanBeta, is worth a book -- and then some.

One look, and it becomes readily apparent that drilling for oil in offshore waters is not the cure-all its supporters assert. Not even close.

See that itsy, bitsy sliver of aqua blue? Well that represents the total impact of new offshore drilling on America’s energy supply. And it ain't much -- some 200,000 barrels per day at peak production.

And yet the McCain campaign has been packaging offshore drilling as the solution to US reliance on oil imports and rising gas prices.

One graph, one big fat lie neatly blown apart.

Okay, offshore drilling may not be a total bust. But as others have noted, it's real worth (if any) lies in helping to safeguard US supplies when America's own production is falling -- not as a means to break US oil dependence or to provide any real energy security.

And keep in mind that peak production from new offshore drilling is still two decades away at best. Meaning: no short-term effect whatsoever on gas prices.

The "Drill, Baby, Drill!" mantra was nothing more than catchy campaign sloganeering based on meticulous polling of what certain voters wanted to hear -- not on any principles of sound energy policy. Time to move beyond it, no?

There are seven actual solutions to energy and climate that will rev up the economy too. More production of fossil fuels is not one of them.

 

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